Just a short post today inspired by my four-year-old daughter, who has just started school.
I jokingly asked her whether she wanted me to come to her school and teach them about missional hermeneutics. Her reply amused me at first and then caused me to reflect on the purpose of it all:
‘No, they won’t know the actions.’
Reading the Bible must lead to something: change, conversion, challenge, repentance, worship, etc. So where does a missional reading of the Bible lead us? Surely it should be to transformation, of the self, of communities, and of the world.
My daughter ‘spoke more than she knew’. She is quite right to expect that missional hermeneutics should involve action, as well as reflection. I also like the assumption that missional hermeneutics can be conceptualised as a song. But what are the actions?…
Centre for the Study of Bible & Mission 